The Medic and The Wolf
by YamiPaladinofChaos
Summary: A hodgepodge of stories about Hatake Kakashi and Rin. Comes in such flavors as romance, angst, and humor. Written for the insertphrase lj community.
1. For The Fallen

**Disclaimer-**Naruto doesn't belong to me.

**A/N**- The first story formy Kakashi/Rin claim at theinsertphrase lj community.

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**Title:** For The Fallen

**Fandom:** Naruto

**Characters: **Kakashi and Rin

**Phrase: **#31 Now is the time to be strong.

**Rating: **PG

**Synopsis:** Two soldiers down, and two more to go.

"He's dead." Rin whispered softly, kicking an idle stone because _it wasn't fair._

"Yeah." Kakashi rasped. He was tired and aching and wanted to cry but he _couldn't._

They were sitting at the bridge; Team Yondaime's bridge, the bridge where they met for the first time together and where the last two were meeting again. Rin was sitting atop one of the railings, legs kicking off the edge. Kakashi leaned against the rail, next to her, looking away.

"It's not fair." Rin murmured, and cried, because she knew Kakashi couldn't.

"No, it's not." Kakashi agreed, and, without thinking, brushed her tears away.

"But now..." he swallowed, his throat was tight, because Sensei wasn't there anymore and Sensei couldn't make things Right again, "Now is the time to be strong."

He looked away, and he felt like he was the smallest, most utterly insignificant thing alive.

"Because that's what he'd want." Kakashi swallowed again, hard. "That's what they'd want, I think."

"It's not fair." Rin continued, sounding childish despite having her childhood murdered on the battlefield years ago. "But life isn't fair, is it?"

Kakashi inclined his head, nodding. "If it was, I wouldn't have this eye." He replied, tapping the forehead protector covering Obito's gift.

"If it was, no one would ever die."

Rin smiled, and hopped off the railing. "But life isn't fair, and they're dead." She whispered, and was crying again- she just couldn't stop.

Kakashi was suddenly in front of her and then pressing her to his chest- tight and hard, obviously not used to being the one to give a hug. As she sniffled against his chest, Rin reflected that perhaps he needed it even more than she did.

"But you're still alive." He murmured, his breath whispering through her hair like a gentle breeze. "I'm glad."

Rin was quiet for a long, long time. She was content to be held and be comforted.

After a while, however, she spoke again.

"I think I want to say 'Don't you dare die on me'." She whispered, into his chest, holding onto him as though the world was an abyss. "But that's something I know you can't keep."

"I'd try." Kakashi offered.

Rin smiled, pulling back so that he could see it. "You're sweet." She murmured, and pressed her lips to his; awkwardly, with her nose bumping his and their teeth clacking, but sweet all the same.

"Don't worry about Sensei." Kakashi said softly, gently brushing a stray tear from her cheek as she pulled away. "He can look after Obito for us now."

"I bet Obito's been in trouble without us to watch over him." Rin giggled, just because she had to laugh after crying and sobbing and wanting to crawl into a hole and fade away from the world.

Kakashi curled his lip, smiling a threadbare smile. "Yeah... but we're pretty lost ourselves." He muttered.

Rin smiled back. "Don't worry. We'll figure things out." She reached out, and grasped his hand in hers.

"Together."


	2. First Meetings

**Title:** First Meetings

**Fandom:** Naruto

**Characters: **Kakashi and Rin

**Phrase:** #10 You have some skill.

**Ratings:** PG

**Synopsis:** Love at first sight? No.

As always, the first meeting is usually fairly awkward, especially when one person is an antisocial prodigy to begin with, and the other two are slightly in awe and fear of the antisocial prodigy.

Konoha's Yellow Flash looked at his team. "Kakashi, meet Obito," he gestured toward the raven haired boy who stared defiant, "and Rin" to the chestnut haired girl who blushed slightly.

Kakashi made a "hmph."

Obito did not like that. A pattern which would continue for a long, long while.

"Hey! You don't have to be a jerk, you know!" Obito snarled, pointing and gesturing angrily at the other boy.

"It's rude to point." Kakashi said caustically, staring back with a lazy glare.

"Ah, ah... hold on there." Their sensei looked mildly nervous as he stepped between the Uchiha and the genius, hands raised and a disarming grin on his face. "Let's not be too hasty here. Save the energy boys, you'll need it.

"Now, normally... I'd perform a test to see if you three pass." The blonde explained, "However, since Kakashi has been my student for a while now, I've decided to change the rules a little." He pulled two bells from his pack and tossed them to Kakashi, who caught them idly, without looking.

"You two," the Yellow Flash pointed toward Obito and Rin, "Will have to take those bells from Kakashi in order to pass."

Obito looked absolutely delighted.

Rin looked cautious.

Kakashi looked bored.

The Yellow Flash grinned. This was beginning to look pretty interesting...

Obito moved first, hands flashing through seals, ending in the tiger seal. A massive burst of fire, a signature of an Uchiha, tore out towards Kakashi, who watched the flames with a mild amount of interest.

In a blur, Kakashi was gone, and Obito was suddenly eating dirt, kicked rather roughly by his prospective teammate, straight into the ground.

Rin moved then, a blur of movement and thrown kunai whistling through the air. Kakashi and their sensei both noted the accuracy of the thrown weapons.

_She's definitely got a medic's eye, _the Yellow Flash noted, smiling.

Kakashi hurled a brace of shuriken in response, knocking the kunai away with ease. Despite himself, his lip curled.

These two were definitely more interesting than the last batch.

---

Obito toppled to the ground with a groan, finally succumbing after a nasty kick to the head.

Rin panted, suppressing the urge to panic. Obito was the better fighter of the two of them- she was a medic, god damn it, not a combat expert!

Kakashi was good- no, better than good.

He was a _genius._

And she had no way of measuring up one on one- not like this.

But her chance at being taught by the up and coming "Yellow Flash" and working alongside the already infamous Hatake Kakashi was slipping away right before her eyes...

And Obito's as well.

Rin gritted her teeth. Not without a fight.

Kakashi's leg flashed into view, coming fast and hard from the left. She pulled back rapidly, kicking off backwards. Kakashi used the momentum from his first kick to spin and strike again, lashing out with a crescent kick.

Rin parried the blow with some effort, then, using her opening, struck fast with a series of basic taijutsu movements.

Kakashi was like flowing quicksilver- there one moment, gone the next, a blur of silver hair.

He struck once, knocking her backwards with an open palm to the stomach, winding her.

Before Rin could recover, she felt the cold steel of a kunai against her neck; Kakashi's arm wound itself around her neck, ready to slit her throat.

"Yield." Kakashi's voice was cold and flat, like an arctic plain.

Rin gritted her teeth again. Sweat mixed with the dirt on her face, turning into a grimy, sticky mess that she desperately wanted to clean off.

In a sudden burst of inspiration, she swung her elbow backwards, hard. A risky gamble, considering the blade at her throat, but she was desperate.

Kakashi gasped hard, the kunai falling from his hand. Rin turned around, panic and desperation setting in. She shut her eyes hard and did the first thing that came to mind- she kicked out, hard.

There was nothing but silence for a moment.

Rin opened her eyes. A second later those eyes widened, and she placed her hands over her mouth. "Oh! Kakashi! I'm sorry!"

Kakashi toppled to the floor, face burning red as he struggled for words, twitching slightly.

In the background, Konoha's Yellow Flash was struggling not to laugh and failing miserably.

Obito wasn't even trying, laughing as he rolled about in the dirt, despite the nasty kick to the head from earlier.

"Well... you have some skill..." Kakashi breathed, groaning as he rolled over, panting and still twitching.

Rin plucked the bells from the prone genius' side, smiling timidly as she turned to the highly amused sensei.

"Um... so do we pass?"

The Yellow Flash laughed again.

"Yeah, I think you do."


	3. Invincible

**Title:** Invincible

**Fandom:** Naruto

**Characters: **Kakashi and Rin

**Phrase: **#43 "If it means protecting you, I'll do whatever is necessary." Shu, Suikoden 2

**Rating: **PG

**Synopsis:** No man is invincible; but a man in love feels he is.

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"... that was _stupid._" Rin wasn't normally pessimistic, but under the circumstances, it was forgivable as she sat at her teammate's bedside once again.

"Sorry." Kakashi murmured tiredly, resting underneath the white sheets of the hospital cot. "I wasn't thinking."

"That much is obvious." Rin commented irritably, but her gaze was soft. "Don't just throw yourself at a horde of Rock nin," she scolded, scowling deeply. "You're not invincible, despite what everyone else might think."

Kakashi chuckled slightly. "The legend of 'Sharingan Kakashi'." He muttered, bemused.

"I think it's going to your head." Rin remarked, reclining into her chair tiredly, rubbing her forehead. "You're getting reckless. Sharingan is a tool, not a deus ex machina."

Kakashi's eye- his real one- locked onto her two orbs with a serious look. "If it means protecting you, I'll do whatever is necessary." His hand crept up, brushing against her own gently.

_I lost Obito._

_I won't lose you._

Rin's cheeks went a dusty pink, and she gripped her hand in his tightly. "Idiot." She whispered, her throat tight.

"Maybe I am." Kakashi replied wryly, smiling all the same.

"But people in love do stupid things."

Rin could have kissed him for that.

She did.

It was awkward- how could it not be, with him temporarily paralyzed underneath hospital sheets and her, with tears helplessly raining down her face, blinding her to nearly everything except him.

It was beautiful- imperfectly so, and made all the more wonderful for that flaw.


End file.
